Tilting At Windmills

October 3, 2013 By Ebony Brown

The stark contrast between Obama administration dogma and the realities of the interminable Arab-Israeli conflict is reflected in the continuing debate over the Oslo Accords (“On 20th Anniversary … Oslo Accords debated rather than celebrated,” Sept. 20).

What President Obama and others now refer to as the two-state solution is nothing but the two-stage dissolution of Israel sought by Yasser Arafat. How can anyone seriously doubt that this is what Arafat’s avid disciple Mahmoud Abbas seeks as well?

It is a sad commentary on our times that our president continues to promote the oxymoronic “land for peace” formula enshrined in the Oslo Accords, while failing to appreciate that, for 20 years, this formula has brought nothing but tragedy, not peace, to the Jews of Israel. Thankfully, most Israelis now realize that meaningless negotiations, based on Obama’s formulation of handing over Israeli territory to the thuggish and anti-Semitic leaders of the Palestinian Authority, will never bring a secure and permanent peace.

Our president defers to the machinations of men such as Abbas who adamantly refuse to recognize the 3,500-year connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. All the while, Obama continues to ignore the unrelenting belligerence manifested by the Palestinian Arabs toward their Jewish neighbors. Like the satirical characters Don Quixote and his loyal squire, Sancho Panza, Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry, plod on, believing they can bring tranquility to a troubled region by tilting at windmills.

The continuing debate over the merits of the Oslo Accords may be worthwhile — even though it should be clear by now that its underlying assumptions were erroneous and inevitably led to disastrous consequences — if the debate makes more people aware of the fact that making peace with your enemies is impossible when they refuse to cease being your enemies. Apparently, this simple truism has escaped those in the Obama administration, which would rather continue tilting at windmills.